Circuit-controlling device for electric-railway systems



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F. '0; ESMOND. CIRCUIT CONTROLLING DEVICE FOR ELECTRIC RAILWAY SYSTEMS.

No.553,981.. Patented Feb. 4, 1896.

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No. 553,981. r Patented Feb. 4, 1896.

Wc'thewsea: hive/war WW J ANDREW BIGRAHAYM, PHON-UTHQWASHINGWN. D.C.

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OI RGUIT CONTROLLING DEVICE FOR ELECTRIC RAILWAY SYSTEMSI No. 553,981. Patented Feb. 4, 18,96.

i my fiwerzar' UNITED STATES PATENT: OFFICE.

FREDERICK CARLETON ESMOND, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO THE ESMOND ELECTRIC TRACTION COMPANY, OF WEST VIRGINIA.

CIRCUIT-CONTROLLING DEVICE FoR ELECTRIC-RAILWAY SYSTEMS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 553,981, dated February 4, 1896. Application filed July 1, 1893. Serial No. 479,417. (No model.)

To ctZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, FREDERICK CARLETON EsMoND, a citizen of the United States, residing at Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Circuit-Controlling Devices for Electric-Railway Systems, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the drawings accompanying and forming a part of the same.

In an application 10f even date herewith I have shown and described a system or combination of devices for supplying current from a stationary source to motors on one or more moving vehicles, which, in general terms, in volves the following characteristics.

Along the track or line of travel are a number of stationary contacts or domes, each inclosing a circuit-controlling apparatus capable of connecting said dome with the supplyconductor during the engagement with the dome of a trailer or contact-bar carried by the car and interrupting such connection as soon as such engagement comes to an end. The domes are so located that some one or more of them will be at all times in engagement core, the latter acting as the switch when raised or lowered by the helix. One coil of the helix is of fine wire and is thrown into circuit by the engagement with its dome of the contact-bar or trailer on the car. The force of the. current which it thus receives, whether derived from the main circuit or supplied by an independent source, is sufficient to raise the core and close the main circuit to the motor; but the result of the establishment of such circuit is the interruption, by any suitable means, whether magnetic or purely mechanical, of the first or shunt circuit.

The application referred to is serially numbered 479,416, filed July 1, 1893, and differs from the present invention in the particulars specified, and particularly in having the switching-sections independent and normally insulated from the line-sections or those which are directly connected to line when the connecting-switches are thrown,while in applica-; tion Serial No. 47 9,416 the diiferent sections first form part of the switching-circuit and are then connected directly to line through the switch and the low-resistance coil, the high-resistance switching-circuit being open when the line-circuit is closed.-

The object of my present invention is to provide a system or combination of devices by means of which a line-conductor may be mechanically connected to isolated contacts, but under different conditions from those above referred to, and which permit of either 7 short contacts or domes orextended rail-sections being used.

' According to my present invention I place between the rails of a track or in any other similar and suitable relation thereto a line of contacts. These may be short or mere con tact points, in which case the car will be provided with an extended bar or its equivalent sufficient to cover two or more contacts at the same time, or they may constitute sections of a rail or extended conductor, in which case the car will carry two or more rollers or trolleys. The latter is the preferred arrangement, and the description of the invention will be confined thereto, though in using the Word sections in the claims hereinafter made I intend to include both forms of construction.

,In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view of a track and supply-conductors such as contemplated by my present invention. Fig. 2 is a diagram of the system with my improvements applied thereto. Fig. 3 is a view in elevation and part section of the improved mechanism which I have devised. Fig. 4 is a top plan view of a portion of the central rail. Fig. 5 is an enlarged view, in central section, of the circuit-controlling apparatus.

A A are the rails ofa track, and B B a central insulated rail, upon which run trolleys C, carried by the car. These trolleys receive current from the central rail, which after passing through the motor D on the car goes to either or both of the main rails through a wheel D, which may be one or more of the car-wheels. The center rail has interposed at predetermined intervals short sections 13, which need be of only a few inches in length, but which are insulated from at least one of the two adjacent sections which they join.

The supply conductor or conductors F are carried along the line of the track or poles, or otherwise, and branches F are run from the same to a switch at each short section B. lVith each short rail-section B is associated a circuit-controlling apparatus inclosed in a case the upper portion or cover of which E is by preference east in one piece with the short section B. G is an insulating-case, which the cover E closes, and which is held by a plate or bar G connecting two chairs II that support the short rail-section B. \Vithin the case thus formed are two coils or helices J K, preferably concentric and arranged to act on a vertical1y-movable core L. helices are preferably wound upon the same spool. This core carries a contact-bar M, which when the core is raised by the action of either coil connects two contacts I) a, one in electrical connection with the branch F through a metal ring or cup d, and the other forming one terminal of the coil K. The other end of the coil K is electrically connected with the section B, while the coil J has its ends connected, one to a conductor N, that runs to. earth, the other to. a wire 0, which leads either to an insulated contact-point P or to an insulated section of the rail 13., over which a car runs before it reaches. the section B. The object of this arrangement is that when a car approaches a section B and im= mediately before its trolleys come in contact therewith it shall energize the coil J either by directing through it to earth a portion of the main current, or by directing through it the current from a special battery carried by the car, and so operate the switch that connects the said section B with the supplywire. Various means for accomplishing this are possible.

In one of the cases shown a short portion of the rail B, as indicated at b in Fig. 2, is

insulated from the remaining portion, and to I claim is this insulated section the wire of the helix J is connected permanently. As. soon, therefore, as any of the trolleys of the car come in contact with the section 1). current is diverted from the motor-circuit through the helix J to earth. This raises the core L and closes the circuit from the supply-conductor to the short section 15.. This-section is insulated from the section b at B, but is in electrical contact with section B in advance of it. Vhen the trolleys reach H, which they do before leaving the section B. in the rear, the motor will receive the current from the same, and the coarse-wire helix K will hold up the core L as long as any of the trolleys are in contact with B or the track-section in advance of it. The circuit tohelix J will, however, be broken as soon as the trolleys leave the insulated section Z).

Instead of connecting the circuit of the coil These 2 or helix J to an insulated section Z), one of the terminals of this coil may be led out through the casing G and connected to a stationary insulated terminal P. Under this terminal is arranged a pivoted lever with a flexible arm S that projects above the railsection B and which is placed in close proximity to section B. \Vhen the trolleys pass over the flexible arm S they cause the lever to come in contact with P and thus establish the circuit to the helix J. As soon as the trolleys pass beyond this lever the circuit of the helix J is interrupted.

Under the arrangement described it is evident that the separate source of current carried by the car and used for starting the motor, after current through it has entirely ceased and the switch permitted to break the motor-circuit, must have a sufficiently high electromotive force to overcome the resistance of the fine-wire coil or coils J. As this would require a large number of cells, I prefer to employ a smaller battery T on the car,

i which may be a storage-battery and charged, when necessary, from the motor-circuit, and some form of converter for-raising the potenj tial of the current.

In the present case I have shown a primary coil 19 in circuit with the battery, and a secondary coil S which may be thrown into circuit with the trolleys by the switch 1). \Vhen the circuit of the battery is interrupted a current impulse is 1 developed in this. secondary that is sufficient to operate the coil J.

The separate source of current is only to be used to. start the car after a permanent stop, 1 as ordinarily enough. of the main current will be allowed to flow through or around the motor to. cause the main coil K to maintain the main circuit closed through the switch M.

In practice I place the contacts at such dis tances that the trolleys. of the car will close the shunt-circuit coil J in advance immediately on breaking, or even before cutting out that in the rear, so that the car may be started from any portion of the track.

Having now described my invention, what 1. The combination in an electric-railway intosuccessive insulated line and switch controlling sections, switches adapted to connect the line-sections but not the switching-sections directly with the insulated supply-conductor, a high-resistance coil connected be-. tween each of the switching-sections. and

ground for closing the correspondingswitch, means for holding the switch closed while the motor-current is being collected from the corresponding line-section, collectors on the car forming a branch circuit from one of the linesections through an adjacent switching-section and ground for closing the line-switch of a succeeding line-section, the collectors and switch-controlling sections being so ar ICO ranged and spaced that the circuit is closed through one such switching-section and highresistance coil immediately on breaking or before breaking the circuit through the switching-section in the rear, and the source of current on the car for sending current through a switchingsection and bringing in the line current at any point on the line of way.

2. p The combination in an electric railway of a supply-conductor, with a series of inclosed switch-boxes, the covers of which constitute sections of a sectional working conductor normally insulated from the supply-conductor,- with a switch and electromagnet housed in each box, each electromagnet comprising two coils, a low-resistance coil joined at one terminal to the conducting-cover of the box, and adapted to be connected at the other terminal to the supply-conductor by the switch, and a high-resistance coilpermanently grounded at countered by the trolleys of a car and while so encountered to complete the circuit from the car through said helix, and a coil or helix in the circuit controlled by the switch, as set forth.

FREDERICK CARLETON ESHOND. i tnesses PAUL K. AMES, M. G. TRACY. 

